The Trailblazers

1969: First Half

Apollo's successes in the seventh and eighth missions augured well for a
manned landing on the moon during 1969. But program executives were not
complaisant about even these demonstrations of the command and service
modules and the Saturn V. Nor did they exhibit any tendency to depart
from a systematic step-by-step plan and to stampede toward a lunar
landing earlier than scheduled, although President Kennedy's deadline
year had arrived.

Frank Borman's Apollo 8 crew in its flight near the moon
had met no major obstacles, but the need for trailblazing missions had
not lessened. Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George
Mueller in Washington wrote Center Director Robert Gilruth in Houston
after Apollo 8 to remind him, "It is essential that we
not rest on our laurels, for we have yet to land on the moon."
Gilruth foresaw few chances for resting. Only three days of the new year
had passed when John D. Stevenson, Director of Mission Operations in
Washington, projected five Apollo flights for 1969, with launches on 28
February, 17 May, 15 July, 12 September, and 10 December. This schedule
was essentially the same race-with-the-decade timetable outlined a year
earlier.1